Brand Blanshard Prize

The Brand Blanshard Prize honors Brand Blanshard, professor of philosophy at Swarthmore from 1925 to 1945, and was established by David H. Scull ’36.

The prize of $150 is awarded annually to the student who, in the judgment of members of the Philosophy Department, submits the best essay on any philosophical topic.  All students are eligible to compete.

For Spring 2025, the deadline for submission of papers is Thursday, April 24, 2025.  Papers must be typewritten and should not exceed 4,000 words.  Revised term papers, senior course study papers and senior honors study papers are acceptable.  Students may submit only 1 paper.

Please prepare your paper to be read anonymously, meaning the author’s name should not appear anywhere on the paper: rather, the author should include this cover sheet and put the title of the paper (without the author's name) and the word count, in the header of each page of the essay.

You may submit a  hard copy via campus mail or a digital copy of papers via email  - addressed to Donna Mucha, Administrative Assistant, Philosophy Department.  Questions can be addressed to dmucha1@swarthmore.edu.

Previous Winners